Potted film reviews by Gary Anthony Cross

July 13, 2016July 13, 2016

Locke (2014)

An engineer makes the decision to “do the right thing” and be there with a woman with whom he had a one night stand while she gives birth to their child, with the possible result of losing everything in his life he has worked so hard to build.

Despite a carefully edited trailer and somewhat misleading marketing, Locke is not a thriller; it’s an emotional drama revolving around a single motorway journey that leads the protagonist away from the life he knew and into the unknown. The entire film is set within the confines of this single automobile and the drama unfolds through a stream of telephone calls as Locke tries to juggle the impact of this news on his family, the emotionally fragile mother-to-be and his work. Through these conversations we discover who this man is and the past experiences that caused him to make his momentous, life changing decision. To be honest, this kind of minimalist approach tends to make the resulting projects feel more like The Play For Today than a movie and the obvious limitations could provoke impatience with some, but Tom Hardy’s performance as the damaged, controlling Welshman maintains the interest for the – albeit brief – duration.